Wednesday, June 15, 2005

13/06/o5. It was the third time Rachid Taha sang in Beirut; this time he inaugurated a series of concerts named "Cabarets de monde" (introduced by Eléftériadès and the Mission culturelle française in Lebanon, with the collaboration of Afaa, Association française d’action artistique).Read "The last rock 'n' roll hero", a review of his concert here!Another article is on line - in French - by Zéna ZALZAL (with bits of interview) and is entitled "Rencontre – Il a donné hier le premier des concerts « Cabaret du monde » au Music Hall« Tékitoi » ? Mais c’est Rachid Taha ! " at http://www.lorientlejour.com/. We learn there that Rachid can tour in the Middle East a lot thanks to the above-mentioned Afaa, that he finds Britney Spears, "the Arab woman persists in wanting to look like" "as ugly as a louse", that he is "an Algerian for ever and a French man for every day", that he regrets the splendour of the Andalousian times when hundreds of books were translated each year and the fact Oriental singers lack creativity and concert infrastructure. The journalist concludes with: "This is Rachid Taha. A singer with some healthy anger, a destroyer of all fake traditions." Unfortunately it seems you have to pay for this article; the best I can do is to invite you to go and find it the lorientlejour site archives.